Man sentenced for attempted murder has first parole hearing


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UTAH STATE PRISON — In 2013, Jeremy Storm admits he was out of control.

"I was out of my mind. I was high experimenting with drugs I had no experience with. My entire thought process, all my decisions that day, just doesn’t make any sense. It’s not something I would have normally done sober,” he said.

After being awake for two straight days after using meth — the first time he'd ever used the drug, he claims — a paranoid Storm attempted to kill a woman in a bizarre incident that stretched from Salt Lake to Park City.

He was charged with aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony; attempted murder, a second-degree felony; two counts of drug possession with intent to distribute, one second-degree and one third-degree felony; and four other counts, including disobeying an officer's commands and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Storm pleaded guilty to the attempted murder charge and failing to stop for police. He was sentenced to three years to life at the Utah State Prison. In 2014, shortly after arriving at the prison, he was convicted of hiding a sharpened broom handle under his pillow. Storm said he was placed in a "rough" cell block that had recently had a stabbing, and he felt he needed protection. He was sentenced to an additional five years in prison. The sentence was ordered to run consecutive to his other conviction, meaning the clock won't start running for that sentence until he serves his time for attempted murder.

On Tuesday, Storm, 24, was given his first parole hearing. Now clean of drugs, Storm spoke slowly and softly as he apologized for his actions.

"I feel like saying sorry doesn’t cut it. I wish it had never happened. I wish I could do something to help. I don’t see any other way other than spending time in prison,” he said in a recording of the hearing.

The victim's mother, who also attended the hearing, said her daughter was still struggling with what happened and asked the parole board not to release Storm.

"I just feel he is evil,” she said.

On July 24, 2013, Storm picked up a woman from the area of the homeless shelter and took her to McDonald's, 210 W. 500 South, according to the charges. He had just met the woman the day before.

After breakfast, the woman noticed $20 was missing from her wallet and confronted Storm about it. That allegedly caused Storm to snap.

"I am going to teach you a lesson for disrespecting me," he told her, according to charging documents.

Storm locked all the doors of the car and pointed a handgun at the woman. He then contacted another woman he knew and picked her up in South Salt Lake.

He drove the two women to the Olympic Park area in Park City, where police say he attacked the first woman by grabbing her head and chin and twisted it in an attempt to break her neck. He also tried pinching her nose and covering her mouth in an attempt to smother her, the charges state.

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Storm then drove to a second location in Park City, an apartment complex parking lot, and the second woman started punching the first woman in the back seat while Storm attempted to stab her multiple times, according to the charging documents.

The first woman was able to get out the back door and fall to the ground. That's when Storm attempted to run over her head. He ran over her hair but missed her head "by a fraction of an inch," according to the victim's mother.

A Utah Highway Patrol trooper near Parleys Summit spotted Storm's vehicle a short time later. The trooper followed the vehicle down the canyon to the 3300 South exit of I-215 where Storm hit three vehicles and a fence at the end of a Millcreek cul-de-sac. He tried to run but was taken into custody a short time later.

"I understand now, after all this time thinking about it, the severity of everything that happened that day,” Storm said Tuesday.

Storm said he had been on a drug binge in the days leading up to the incident. He said he was driving around for two days because he was paranoid that every person he saw was a police officer.

Storm also contends that he wanted the woman to get out of his car, but he again became paranoid when she started telling him information about him.

"I wanted her out of my car. She wouldn’t leave,” he said. "I was mostly afraid. As far as I can remember I was afraid. I was angry and I was afraid.

"I know I tried to hurt her, and I fully admit to that. But I never tried to keep her against her will in my car," Storm continued.


I understand now, after all this time thinking about it, the severity of everything that happened that day.

–Jeremy Storm


When Storm was charged, it was reported that he was going to kill the woman because he wanted to see if "I had it in me." At his parole hearing, Storm denied that was the case.

"I never really gave any serious thought ever to kill somebody,” he said.

The victim's mother, however, said she believed the incident was premeditated and that he had no intention of letting her daughter go.

"He just told her she was going to die that day,” she told the parole board.

The woman said her daughter "has tried so hard to get over this,” but there is emotional damage that may never be repaired, she said. Her daughter still fears that if Storm gets out of prison, he will try to find her.

Storm said he can say sorry, write letters of apology and pay restitution, but none of it will change what happened.

"And if being in here makes her and her family feel more safe, that’s what needs to be done," he said.

Under the guidelines for Storm's sentence, he would be held in prison until 2023. The Board of Pardons and Parole is not bound to stick to those guidelines. The full five member board was expected to make a decision whether to grant parole in about two weeks.

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